Posted to Chabad News on

Philanthropist Guma Aguiar Reportedly Missing

Guma Aguiar, a Brazilian-born billionaire and supporter of many Chabad programs and institutions, is reportedly missing after his empty yacht floated to shore near his Ft. Lauderdale home, with him nowhere to be found.

From WPTV in Fort Lauderdale:

A search is under way for a boater whose vessel came ashore on Fort Lauderdale beach in the early morning hours Wednesday.

Missing is Guma Aguiar, 35, of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale Police and the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Aguiar is a businessman who made a fortune in oil and gas interests. He is also a philanthropist who has contributed millions to Jewish and Israeli charities and in 2009, co-sponsored a soccer team there called Beitar Jerusalem.

Aguiar’s 31-foot, center console Jupiter boat, the T.T. Zion, a tender for the yacht Zion, landed on the sand east of East Las Olas Boulevard around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday, with its navigation lights on and engines still running, police said.

Good Samaritans reported the beaching of the boat, officials said.

The Coast Guard said it matched Aguiar’s vessel to another report, that Aguiar took his boat out at approximately 7 p.m. Tuesday and had not returned.

Aguiar’s wife Jaime Aguiar told Fort Lauderdale Police that she is concerned for her husband’s safety, Detective Travis Mandell said Wednesday.

She arrived home Tuesday and believed her husband was in his home office, Mandell said. She told investigators an employee of the couple told her that her husband went out on his boat around 7:30 that night, and had not been seen since.

The Coast Guard, Broward Sheriffs and Fort Lauderdale Police marine units are searching area waterways and three miles offshore, between Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and Port Everglades, officials said.

One of Aguiar’s attorneys, Fred Haddad, said his client is knowledgeable about boats.

“I’m just kind of dumbfounded,” said Haddad when he learned about the missing person report. “I really like the guy. He’s as nice as they come.”

Fort Lauderdale Police also searched the beach aboard ATVs, Mandell said.

Before dawn, Aguiar’s boat was pulled from the sand into the ocean by SeaTow for storage at its Fort Lauderdale warehouse.

Related Articles

7 Comments

  • Wow!! crazy stuff!

    wow!! did his wife try calling him? if so, what happened??

  • Like Robert Maxwell?

    Former owner of the Daily News, Robert Maxwell – on Nov.5 1991, his body was found floating in the Atlantic, after a cruise on his luxury yacht, off the Canary Islands. The official story is that he fell overboard from his yacht and drowned. He was buried in Israel, on the Mt. of Olives. Author, Gordon Thomas, described his funeral more befitting a head of state than a publisher.
    However, the Daily Mirror speculated that the Mossad may have wanted him out of the picture because of his connections with them, and he allegedly tried to blackmail them.

  • Moishie

    #3 how is this nogea?!?! May HKB”H Watch over him and all of klal yisrael, bichol makom shehaim!